Monday, June 29, 2009

Caring Parents and Food

The hawk parents are still young. They know what to do. Young human parents also go through the same learning curve. Yesterday was a wonderful day watching parents and fine dining. The sparrows find food wherever it is and whatever it is. The hawk food has to be parent-delivered, this time freshly caught and prepared pigeon, beheaded and slit open. Yummy. The baby began calling, saw that food had arrived and did the lateral snatch. Snatch took all of one second. Instead of dining on a branch the baby flew down and dragged pigeon along the ground calling all the while. It had room to maneuver and could have flown to a tree, but instead it moved into the leaves near the highway. Tension was high. Would this baby try and fly its meal across the highway too???? The Baby Sitting Squad went into action, two hawk lovers stood guard up at edge of highway so that baby wouldn't select that route. Baby dined in the bushes near the highway. Parent stayed to watch that all was well before flying off. I "flew off" too, emotionally drained.